Iona Board of Trustees Welcomes New Members for 2017-18 Academic Year

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - Iona College announced five new members joining the Board of Trustees beginning September 2017. Phillip N. Maisano '76MBA rejoins the Board along with first-time members Patrick O'Donnell Jr., Sean P. O'Shea '13, Peter J. Ripp '68 and Ingrid Thompson-Sellers, Ph.D, '95MS.

“Iona is grateful for the dedication and leadership of its Trustees and is pleased to welcome back Phil. We also look forward to working with new Trustees O'Donnell, O'Shea, Ripp and Thompson-Sellers,” said James P. Hynes '69, '01H, chairman of the Iona College Board of Trustees. “Each brings a wealth of knowledge and a broad range of experiences to our Board from across industries including the academy, technology and financial sectors, to name a few. The College will benefit greatly from their advice and leadership.”

Phillip N. Maisano '76 MBA

Maisano rejoins the Board of Trustees and will serve as chair of the investment committee.

Maisano has over three decades of experience in the financial services sector. He serves as a principal of MaisFour Enterprises and is also a senior advisor to Valores Capital Management, Standard Life Investments, and Van Eck Global.

Maisano previously served as chief investment strategist at BNY Mellon Asset Management, one of the world's largest investment managers with over $1.3 trillion in assets under management. Maisano was also vice chairman and CIO at Dreyfus from 2006 to 2011, and served as head of alternative investments for BNY Mellon Asset Management. Additionally, he was chairman and CEO at EACM Advisors, one of the leading global funds of hedge fund managers, and CEO and president at Evaluation Associates, one of the largest institutional investment consultants in the U.S. Maisano formerly served as vice president and senior vice president for MONY Financial Services, vice president for Manhattan Life Insurance Company and assistant vice president for The Equitable.

Maisano was a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army National Guard on active duty in 1971 and reserves from 1972 to 1981.

Maisano received his MBA in Finance from Iona College in 1976, JD from New York University in 1973, BA from Belmont Abbey College in 1969, and is a 1965 graduate of Seton Hall Preparatory. He completed the Executive Education Program at Columbia University and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law Degree from Belmont Abbey College.

Maisano is married to Mary Alice (Yanch) Maisano, and together they have two adult sons.

C. Patrick O'Donnell Jr.

Patrick O'Donnell is a retired investment executive. He is a member of the five-person Independent Investment Committee overseeing the investments of the State of New Hampshire's pension fund. He has served on a variety of non-profit boards and on their finance committees. He is also a tree farmer, a former newspaper reporter, and a published poet.

O'Donnell retired in 1998 as head of Global Equity Research at Putnam Investments in Boston. Previously, he had been an equity analyst at Furman Selz and at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, as well as director of Research and International Research at Prudential Investments. Currently he is a principal in Arden Forest, LLC, owner of forest land in New Hampshire.

In his youth, O'Donnell was a police reporter for The Charlotte Observer and a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal in Detroit and in San Francisco. He was an assistant professor in the Department of English at Princeton University. Educated at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio, O'Donnell holds a BA from Harvard College, magna cum laude, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University.

O'Donnell has been vice chair of The Boston Cecilia, vice president of the Harvard Musical Association, vice president of The Signet Society at Harvard University, and a board member of The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.

He lives with his wife, Kendra Stearns O'Donnell, a painter, on a farm in New Hampshire and in Boston. Patrick and Kendra have three children and four grandchildren. He is an avid fly fisherman.

Sean P. O'Shea '13

O'Shea is the founder of Majestyk Apps – a premier mobile agency in New York – where he leads a team of engineers, developers, creatives and strategists in defining the future of mobile experience. During the last four years, O'Shea has worked with a diverse array of clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies such as Citibank, IBM and Pepsi. O'Shea's top priority as founder is to ensure each of his clients achieves success through well-designed, easy-to-use apps.

O'Shea also co-founded Elemental Path, creators of the CogniToys Dino. O'Shea and his team entered the IBM Watson Mobile Developer Challenge and won with the idea of using the world's most advanced language processing program to entertain 5-year-olds. O'Shea leads the day-to-day development and design of all Elemental Path and CogniToys platforms.

O'Shea completed his bachelor's degree in Computer Science at Iona College, where he also played on the golf team.

Peter J. Ripp '68

Ripp is a senior vice president with NIC Holding Corp., also known as Northville Industries Corp. NIC Holding Corporation, a petroleum services company, is engaged in the purchase, sale, and exchange of cargoes, barges, in-tank transfers, and pipeline shipments of petroleum products. It offers heating oil, gasoline, diesel, and kerosene; and renewable fuels, including B5 blends of heating oil and diesel, as well as E85 (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) for Flex Fuel vehicles. The company also takes positions on regulated commodity futures exchanges and is a clearing member of the New York Mercantile Exchange. NIC Holding Corporation was incorporated in 2000 and is based in Melville, N.Y. It has satellite offices in Houston, Texas; and Nyon, Switzerland.

Mr. Ripp received his BA in Economics from the School of Arts & Science in 1968. He and his wife, Barbara A. (Malloy) Ripp, have two sons and reside in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Ingrid Thompson-Sellers, Ph.D., '95MS

Thompson-Sellers currently serves as the president of South Georgia State College. The college enrolls about 2,600 students in associate's and bachelor's degree programs. Prior to her appointment as president, Thompson-Sellers served as a senior associate dean and professor of Business Information Systems at Georgia State University. Prior to her roles at Georgia State University, Thompson-Sellers served in a variety of roles at Georgia Perimeter College, including interim vice president for Academic Affairs, Business Information Systems faculty, department chair, dean of Business, campus dean at Newton, Decatur, Clarkston and GPC Online.

Thompson-Sellers received a Master of Science degree from Iona College where she also taught as an adjunct professor. She holds a bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of the West Indies and a doctorate in Instructional Technology from Georgia State University.

ABOUT IONA COLLEGE
Founded in 1940, Iona College is a four-year private coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers and American Catholic higher education, located just 20 miles from Midtown Manhattan in New Rochelle. With a global network of more than 45,000 alumni, Iona is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona offers undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science and business administration, pre-professional and professional programs, Master of Arts, Master of Science and Business Administration degrees, and numerous advanced certificate programs. The College is the second-largest private sector employer in New Rochelle and provides more than 66,000 service hours in the community each year. Studies indicate the College also has an annual economic impact of $258 million as measured by the NY Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU). See more at www.iona.edu.